A Streetcar Named Desire - 2/5

This is a confused movie, with each of the characters being either detestable or impotent, and often both. It’s meandering and vague, which makes its pointless ending an insult to the audience’s time and intelligence. The film tries to convey solidarity through compassion for the main character, but only succeeds in eliciting scornful pity as her villainy is revealed through the film. The only redeeming feature of this story is its tragically poetic dialogue, which is beautiful but falls flat without a meaningful story to tell.

Closest comparison: It’s like Gone With the Wind by way of Sunset Boulevard.

Setting: Drama
Plot: Tragedy
Tone: Tragedy

Gone With the Wind - 2/5

This is a classic epic-scale film with excellent trappings and nothing to say. The first half is quite good and would probably get a 4/5 on its own but the second half drags on and on. It plagues the audience with painful repetitions of previously established material, over long dramatic yet exhaustingly boring tantrums from the main character, and pointless drawn out tragedy that adds nothing to the narrative. Even though there are some truly great moments, the rest of the runtime weighs it down and loses the plot in the weeds.

Closest comparison: It’s like The Ten Commandments (1956) for the first half and the never-ending slough of AI: Artificial Intelligence for the second half.

Setting: War
Plot: Tragedy
Tone: Petty Squabbles